I wish that I could have turned off my brain and just enjoyed The Island

Rating: 5/10 (8 August 2005)

I wish that I could have turned off my brain and just enjoyed The Island as a straight-ahead action film. However the film seems to beg to be taken seriously. The premise is potentially interesting: evil doctor runs a city of clones used as replacement parts for rich people. Of course the clones are oblivious to this. Two young and attractive clones discover they are all being duped and escape to semi-futuristic Los Angeles. The film seems to take the moral high ground on such issues as man playing God and the right to life. Unfortunately, things go downhill from there.
The remainder of the film consists of some decent chase scenes and otherwise great actors trying to save a very confusing script. Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, and Ewan McGregor (in two roles) all try to salvage a troubled movie. Scarlett Johansson had the hardest task trying to breathe life into the adolescent fantasy character of the naive, loyal, sex object. The film's creators are likely hoping that the audience has not seen or doesn't remember such films as Logan's Run, THX 1138, or Coma because The Island liberally borrows from the better films. Don't worry about my including a spoiler because the two people with whom I saw the movie and I disagreed about what actually happened the last in the final 20 minutes. I'm wishing that I spent the 20 minutes elsewhere.